By attending a public consultation about the Bronson reconstruction, I have somehow ended up on a Diane Holmes email list. In any case, she has sent out some (I feel good, but at least interesting) news about the project:

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Hello there,

In the last few months, you participated in the consultations for the Bronson Avenue reconstruction project. You have attended the open house, written letters to the mayor and the project manager, and signed the petition at RescueBronson.ca. These efforts were not in vain: I have received word today that the City’s traffic department has abandoned their plans to widen the lanes on Bronson Avenue. (See forwarded message below)

This is welcome news that will allow residents to keep their front yards, and will require pedestrians to spend less time exposed to traffic while crossing Bronson Avenue. While it isn’t a road diet, it does give us more flexibility to improve the landscaping along Bronson Avenue so that it is a more pleasant street to walk along and across.

I will be meeting with the project engineers next week to discuss the opportunities to further improve the design with pedestrian safety in mind, and the community representatives on the Public Advisory Committee will be meeting in February. The project team will be holding a Public Open House sometime at the end of February to inform the public of the construction timelines. Work is expected to begin in early March.

Thank you for your hard work in standing up for our community, and helping to turn Bronson Avenue back into a more liveable street.

Further to our discussions regarding the proposed pavement width for the Bronson Ave renewal project, I asked staff to further review the proposed widening. I provide the following update:

During design of Bronson Avenue it was realized there would be impacts on existing Hydro plant in moving to a wider pavement width of 14 metres, but the extent of these impacts were not completely known until very recently. Relocation of the plant is challenging and costly for certain portions of the roadway.

Based on this recent information and further consideration of the very constrained corridor, location of adjacent buildings (including stairs, porches and entrances), varying road widths and sidewalk widths at pinch points, it has been determined that maintaining the existing width is acceptable.

It should be noted that this pavement width would normally not permit on street parking in accordance with City guidelines, however, since council has previously approved parking on this section of Bronson Avenue, that direction will continue to be followed. This was also an important fact in our final determination.

Therefore, I have instructed staff to proceed with the renewal based on the existing pavement width.

Staff will present the new geometry design at the construction open house, which will be scheduled for late February. Staff will also meet with you to provide an updated overview prior to the public meeting.

It seems that the engineering difficulties yielded this change as much (or more) than the community activism. Furthermore, the fact that the issue is the Hydro infrastructure, which in my mind should be buried, is ironic. Nevertheless, widening the road was going to harm what little opportunity there is to make Bronson pedestrian-friendly, so I do feel this is a positive development.

Is there any website that shows raw traffic counts on Ottawa municipal roads?

Speaking of that corridor, I was thinking...is there any way a connection could be made between the Airport Parkway and Leitrim Road, and eventually towards Riverside South? IMO, that would be the only way to avoid a longer-term need for a Hunt Club freeway. The interchange that would be needed at Hunt Club and Airport Parkway would need expropriation for sure...

Speaking of that corridor, I was thinking...is there any way a connection could be made between the Airport Parkway and Leitrim Road, and eventually towards Riverside South?

The only way that could really be possible would be to route the Airport Parkway to the east instead of to the west as it approaches Uplands. Sort of have a Y exit, one continuing towards the airport via the current route, and the other would have to be routed on/beside the Rail Corridor that is there to Leitrim. And then simply rename the portion that goes south to possibly Riverside Parkway / Riverside South Parkway? (too confusing?)

Or we could spend Billions of dollars and do what Calgary is doing and tunnel underneath the runway and have the Airport Parkway run in a straight line until Leitrim and continuing to Earl Armstrong. IMO this would create a huge 'shortcut' for Riverside South AND Barrhaven residents (new bridge) but will never happen because of financial reasons.

The only way that could really be possible would be to route the Airport Parkway to the east instead of to the west as it approaches Uplands. Sort of have a Y exit, one continuing towards the airport via the current route, and the other would have to be routed on/beside the Rail Corridor that is there to Leitrim. And then simply rename the portion that goes south to possibly Riverside Parkway / Riverside South Parkway? (too confusing?)

Or we could spend Billions of dollars and do what Calgary is doing and tunnel underneath the runway and have the Airport Parkway run in a straight line until Leitrim and continuing to Earl Armstrong. IMO this would create a huge 'shortcut' for Riverside South AND Barrhaven residents (new bridge) but will never happen because of financial reasons.

If we're going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a road, it makes more sense to divert Bronson via a tunnel under Commissioners Park or Dows Lake, then a sunken freeway along Booth street between Carling and the Queensway. This would allow traffic from the south to bypass the more residential section of Bronson completely. Bronson through the Glebe could then be narrowed to a two- or three-lane street.

Of course, I'd prefer to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on transit and cycling infrastructure.

Of course, I'd prefer to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on transit and cycling infrastructure.

Amen to that!! I would prefer TODs and a car-limited city any day... but knowing the city we live in... thought I could at least share my car-oriented vision. And perhaps the tunnel for Bronson could lead right to the underground parking garages too!!

The only way that could really be possible would be to route the Airport Parkway to the east instead of to the west as it approaches Uplands. Sort of have a Y exit, one continuing towards the airport via the current route, and the other would have to be routed on/beside the Rail Corridor that is there to Leitrim. And then simply rename the portion that goes south to possibly Riverside Parkway / Riverside South Parkway? (too confusing?)

Or we could spend Billions of dollars and do what Calgary is doing and tunnel underneath the runway and have the Airport Parkway run in a straight line until Leitrim and continuing to Earl Armstrong. IMO this would create a huge 'shortcut' for Riverside South AND Barrhaven residents (new bridge) but will never happen because of financial reasons.

I agree, a tunnel is not a smart idea. Maybe if traffic counts peaked at 200,000, but not at, say, 40,000.

I was kind of leaning onto that kind of idea as well of a side-winder route, but finding a corridor is difficult - there is no way the rail corridor should be used.

It makes me wonder - was the Limebank widening really warranted or should other corridors have been considered? All that did was put more pressure on Hunt Club which was already over capacity. Ultimately, the Hunt Club corridor is where all the massive work will need to go. It is already seriously over capacity in the area and will only get worse.

If we're going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a road, it makes more sense to divert Bronson via a tunnel under Commissioners Park or Dows Lake, then a sunken freeway along Booth street between Carling and the Queensway. This would allow traffic from the south to bypass the more residential section of Bronson completely. Bronson through the Glebe could then be narrowed to a two- or three-lane street.

Of course, I'd prefer to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on transit and cycling infrastructure.

Bronson is a major problem spot, but there is no good solution there. Traffic volumes need to be reduced there by about 50% somehow. MAYBE, it could be narrowed, but with signs warning drivers to consider alternate routes?

Assume a generous 20% of the traffic can be diverted to transit (since it is not practical for some, and many would never take transit because of personal choices). That still requires anothe 30% of the traffic to shift to alternate routes. It might be possible...

Here is how I would design the area. It really transforms the whole south end...

Albion Road: New flyover of Hunt Club. Community connections would still be possible at Cahill/Bank and Albion/Bank. Hunt Club Manor would still be accessible by a new service road, while the car dealership would be removed.

Bank Street: SPUI at Hunt Club in order to reduce the number of signals and the footprint of the interchange. The strip plazas in the SE corner of the interchange are removed to fit the realigned Hunt Club. However, significant land would remain adjacent to Bank and that would be prime for a streetside redevelopment. That would allow for a new mainstreet feel of southern Bank. The strip plaza in the SW corner is not needed, but discussions with the owners might allow for a total redevelopment. Although the spacing is tight, IMO it is probably acceptable for 80 km/h.

Daze Street/Bridle Path Drive: New flyover of Hunt Club. Community connections would be possible at Bank/Daze or Bank/Albion. The parking lots would be reconfigured to allow for access to Mountain Crescent.

Downpatrick Road/McCarthy Road: New flyover of Hunt Club. Community connections would be possible at the new Uplands interchange (which would NOT be directly at Uplands Drive, but rather indirectly accessible at Gibford Drive, in order to minimize community disruption). The several houses fronting Hunt Club would either need to be back-fronted or removed.

Airport Parkway area: It is assumed the Airport Parkway is twinned through the area, but it does not necessarily have to be for its entire length, just around the interchange. The current SPUI would be redesigned into a diamond to maintain the ramps while eliminating the traffic signals. A new loop ramp would allow for S-->E movements and a new flyover ramp would allow for E-->N movements and access to Hunt Club Loop for eastbound buses. Westbound buses would have an easy ramp, while buses headed westbound would have to exit onto Bank Street (alternatively, a new bus ramp could be built skewing across the Airport Parkway).

There is no access to SB Airport Parkway from WB Hunt Club, and no access to WB Hunt Club from NB Airport Parkway. Those movements would have to be done via Uplands, due to space issues.

Rideau Street to be re-vamped. Wider sidewalks and shared bicycle and vehicle ‘sharrow’ lanes will make this section of Rideau Street, seen here at King Edward Avenue, a friendlier place for pedestrians and cyclists, says Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury:

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Rideau Street to get wider sidewalks, ‘sharrow’ lanes
Summer construction project to create more pedestrian-friendly area

MARKET/LOWERTOWN - The City of Ottawa is set to bury hydro lines on Rideau Street this summer, despite recently approving a policy that says the city won’t pay the to remove hydro poles as a standard practice.
Rideau will be reconstructed from Dalhousie Street to Chapel Street starting in April, with much of the work set to be done before Canada Day.

When it’s done, it will, “look as nice as Preston and Bank (streets),” said Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury.

The work will include widening the sidewalks along much of the street, in some cases by up to 30 per cent. “Sharrows,” or arrows marking shared bicycle and vehicle lanes, will be added, with the goal of making Rideau a more pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly environment, Fleury said.

Despite a city policy that says hydro wires can’t be buried underground unless local businesses, developers and residents pay for it, the Rideau project will bury the remaining above-ground hydro wires on the south side of Rideau between King Edward and Wurtemburg.

It’s a special case, Fleury said. In that area, the sidewalk must be narrowed slightly, meaning the hydro poles have to be moved or else they would be on the street. The poles can’t be relocated further into the sidewalk because there wouldn’t be enough room for sidewalk snow plows to get through, so the only solution left is to remove the poles altogether, he said.

The project could also mean some changes to troublesome intersections along Rideau, as recommended in the Rideau area transportation network study, Fleury said.

The most major of those changes could be adding two-way traffic to Cumberland between George and Rideau, which would provide another exit from the Byward Market. That could also include the addition of a cycling lane south of Rideau to allow cyclists to safely exit the Byward market area via Cumberland.

A consultant will advise on those possibilities in the coming weeks.

Turning-lane turmoil
Where possible, the city will trade left-turn lanes for wider sidewalks, but that’s not the case at Nelson Street – a situation that has local community associations upset.

Transportation engineers have the final say, and they decided the left-turn lane northbound off Rideau Street will still be needed, so sidewalks in that section cannot be widened – in fact, the sidewalks will be narrower in order to accommodate the sharrow lane.

But John Verbaas, who deals with transportation issues for community group Action Sandy Hill, said an engineer’s report supports the community’s preference to lose the turning lane at Nelson in favour of wider sidewalks.

Wider sidewalks are an important building block to create a more welcoming area for pedestrians, Verbaas said, adding that attracts new businesses and improves street life along that beleaguered section of Rideau,.

And it wouldn’t just allow for wider sidewalks in the short span that includes the turning lane, Verbaas said. If that small section of turning lane is removed, the sidewalks could be wider in the entire block between King Edward and Nelson, extending past the Loblaws grocery store on the other side of Nelson.

“It just communicates a whole different feeling to the street,” he said.

Wider sidewalks offer the obvious safety benefit of a larger buffer between walkers and vehicles, Verbaas said, comparing the fight over Rideau to the argument made by advocates fighting to “rescue” Bronson Avenue by reducing the number of traffic lanes.

Fleury called a meeting with community members on Feb. 15 to try to resolve the issue, but he said, “To me, that’s a very minor element.”

Fleury is also concerned about revising the detour and road-closure plan for the project. One lane in each direction is planned to be open at all times during construction. Both buses and vehicles would share the lane.

The remainder of the Rideau Street reconstruction project, between Chapel and the Cummings Bridge, should be completed by the end of the summer of 2013.

New roundabout proposed for Cambrian at Jockvale in Barrhaven South as part of the Cambrian Road re-construction so the second one following the one at Greenbank - which while haven't seen it in person looks to be completed because Google Street View did show quite a bit of road work in/around that intersection c. 2009 or 2010. Cambrian will stay as a 2-lane road. Now not sure when there will be an interchange at the 416 because I had read about a possible interchange a few years ago.

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So Cambrian will be something like the currently partially-built Brian Coburn Boulevard? There would seem to be an overload of arterial roads in the area though.

Probably a 60 km/h speed limit would make most sense with that design in the end.

Have you been to South Barrhaven lately? That area south of Strandherd is a mess... Greenbank seems to be always closed between Jockvale and Cambrian due to new development/houses/sewer installation/you name it... so I wouldn't say that there is an overload, as it is currently a cow path and the only real direct link to Jockvale and the rest of Barrhaven. However, I don't think it's necessary for it to be 4-lanes yet; but it's definitely cheaper in the long run to make it 4 now as oppose to making it 2 now and expanding later.

Have you been to South Barrhaven lately? That area south of Strandherd is a mess... Greenbank seems to be always closed between Jockvale and Cambrian due to new development/houses/sewer installation/you name it... so I wouldn't say that there is an overload, as it is currently a cow path and the only real direct link to Jockvale and the rest of Barrhaven. However, I don't think it's necessary for it to be 4-lanes yet; but it's definitely cheaper in the long run to make it 4 now as oppose to making it 2 now and expanding later.

I should have meant once the new Greenbank is built (and that needs to be first IMO - the bridge should be 4 lanes now and the remainder probably 2 lanes, although a cost-benefit analysis may come into play). And no I have not been to South Barrhaven (south of the Jock River) in a while.

Transit service could probably also be improved there, hopefully TransPlan 2012 fixes things. Here are some improvements to transit I would make:

1) Either increase Route 177 peak period service to every 15 minutes (at least in the peak direction), or implement a new express route on the same routing (say, Route 75) with 5 morning and 5 afternoon trips (I prefer the 15 minute peak service)

2) Add Sunday service on Route 177, every 60 minutes from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm plus one late trip around 10:00 pm

3) No changes to Route 175, as it seems destined to remain a low-ridership route.

The City of Ottawa is undertaking the design for the widening of Jockvale Road. The project will result in the detailed design to enable the complete reconstruction of a portion of Jockvale Road between Paul Metivier Drive and Cambrian Road to a four lane arterial road standard. This includes a roundabout at Jockvale Road and Cambrian Road, sidewalks, multi-use paths, cycling lanes, turning lanes and a median. Two new bridges will replace the existing Jock River bridge, water and gas mains will be relocated at the Jock River and a storm sewer system south of the Jock River will be installed.

The design will be completed following the Public Open House and ready for construction in the Spring 2012.